The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Friday, December 07, 2007 Print Article | Close Window Community leaders sound off By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer HOUGHTON — A high-profile list of the top high schools in America isn’t the only thing parents consider when they’re looking to move here. But it certainly doesn’t hurt. Seven Copper Country schools were among more than 1,500 schools mentioned in U.S. News & World Report’s debut list, which measured more than 18,000 schools in 40 states. Karin Van Dyke, vice president of communications at Portage Health in Hancock, said prospective employees with children are always concerned about education. Something like the rankings, she said, would be included on the hospital’s recruiting fliers. “It’s a real selling point, especially for people not familiar with the area, who might have questions or concerns about the quality of education in a rural, remote area,” she said. “That’s a real plus.” Pam Karttunen, an administrative assistant at Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital, agreed, saying “it definitely would be used as a tool to recruit profesionals to our area.” The rankings help show schools’ quality, said Brad Baltensperger, chair of the cognitive and learning sciences department at Michigan Technological University. Still, he said, parents are more interested in the totality of what a district has to offer. “They’re looking at the elementary school, as well as the high school, they’re looking at what the district has in terms of the music programs, what’s the atmosphere in the school, what are the extracurricular activites ... but I think this is a nice piece fo evidence to support people’s decisions,” he said. Bill Fink, president of the Keweenaw Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, said the results are a good indication of the area’s quality of life, along with factors such as location, services and recreational opportunities. “When somebody has a job offer to come to the hospital, or Tech, or Finlandia, they’ll go to that Web site and say, ‘How do we compare,’” he said. The U.S. News rankings were designed to counteract other rankings, such as Newsweek’s annual list, by measuring the performance of disadvantaged children as well as the highest performers. But the list has still come under fire for other reasons, such as the inclusion of schools that screen potential students and the magazine’s economic motivations for the list. After looking at some critiques, Baltensperger said the rankings are a pretty good measure of school performance. However, he warned, we should be careful not to obsess over school rankings. “This isn’t like ranking college football teams, or the NBA playoffs,” he said. “Sports teams, there’s really one thing that matters with ranking, and that’s the won-lost record. i don’t know how we do a win-lose stat for schools.” Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com